AI-Infused iOS 18 Lauded as 'Ambitious and Compelling' by Apple Execs

[MobiusStrip]

More crap. Meanwhile, Apple will still neglect to fix the iPhone's most absurd and pathetic defect: no audible notifications of missed calls.

And then a runner-up: The calendar changes the times on all your appointments when you travel, because Apple thinks that when you buy a plane ticket or schedule a meeting in another time zone, you do the math and enter the "wrong" time on purpose before leaving so it's right when Apple "fixes" it for you. The utter stupidity of this assumption is mind-boggling.

There's no way to set an appointment on the phone so it goes off when the clock on the phone shows a particular time, regardless of time zone. Incredible.

And yet, when you travel to another country, Apple isn't smart enough to do the same thing for all your contacts. So when someone in the USA calls you in Europe, their name won't show up because the country code is prepended.

 

[Premium1]

Siri is ass so I have 0 faith apple will get anything meaningful out. Google is wiping the floor with them in terms of integration with the OS and AI (and even moreso virtual assistants). Apple waited and fell behind and now we will get some more stickers or other things that nobody asked for instead of meaningful change.

 

[return2sendai]

I used Siri the other day to add butter to my grocery list and it worked. The last time I tried to use Siri was about a year ago and that time it didn’t work at all. So if by iOS 18 they could improve it even further I’d be very impressed indeed. Progress!

“Siri, can you add grass-fed butter too.”

 

[MidwestMacGuy]

I'm glad they are pausing new software projects to fix what is wrong with the current products. Apple if you're reading this, you can start with making the color green in Car Play apps thee color that makes a button execute the command. You know, Green means go. So frustrating that green color on a button does nothing and blue is the color that make a button work. That alone makes me question if Apple knows what it is doing with their apps.

 

[x86dude]

Just fix the bugs. Please. No one cares about any of this. Make it reliable and not drain battery. Please and thank you.

How do I vote (like) for this twice please.

 

[Tagbert]

Bingo! Plus, their "specs" are rarely actually specifications and are, instead, trite hyperbole: "fastest ever," "most powerful ever," "longest battery life ever," etc. Of course Apple releases the "best" version of each of their products, but using the same phrases every year makes it appear they are trying to hide something. Let the products, not the PR, shine.

So them saying that this year's version is better than last year's version is them "hiding something"? Uh...

 

[Tagbert]

More crap. Meanwhile, Apple will still neglect to fix the iPhone's most absurd and pathetic defect: no audible notifications of missed calls.

And then a runner-up: The calendar changes the times on all your appointments when you travel, because Apple thinks that when you buy a plane ticket or schedule a meeting in another time zone, you do the math and enter the "wrong" time on purpose before leaving so it's right when Apple "fixes" it for you. The utter stupidity of this assumption is mind-boggling.

There's no way to set an appointment on the phone so it goes off when the clock on the phone shows a particular time, regardless of time zone. Incredible.

And yet, when you travel to another country, Apple isn't smart enough to do the same thing for all your contacts. So when someone in the USA calls you in Europe, their name won't show up because the country code is prepended.

It's almost like they need to create some kind of artificial intelligence to catch those problems and fix them in real-time.

 

[Tagbert]

I'm glad they are pausing new software projects to fix what is wrong with the current products. Apple if you're reading this, you can start with making the color green in Car Play apps thee color that makes a button execute the command. You know, Green means go. So frustrating that green color on a button does nothing and blue is the color that make a button work. That alone makes me question if Apple knows what it is doing with their apps.

The most common type of color blindness is red-green color blindness. It is less of a problem for traffic lights as the colors have conventional positions. This sucks when some places use horizontal traffic lights just to mess with people.

 

[aParkerMusic]

I get what you're saying but AI is really demanding so they might need to limit it to new models. 8GB RAM on the iPhone 15 Pro Max might not be enough depending what features Apple is going to add. I'll be interested to see what kind of RAM the iPhone 16 Pro models come with next year.

Of course, Apple could just send everything to their servers to process instead of doing it on device.

But your point...yeah I hope they can bring as many features as possible to all supported devices. We'll see.

I think it’s highly unlikely Apple is going to include more than 8GB of RAM in iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max considering it still sells a ”pro” computer with that amount. So, anything they develop is not going to require more than 8 GB of RAM.

 

[flybass]

Siri is ass so I have 0 faith apple will get anything meaningful out. Google is wiping the floor with them in terms of integration with the OS and AI (and even moreso virtual assistants). Apple waited and fell behind and now we will get some more stickers or other things that nobody asked for instead of meaningful change.

True, but Apple should hopefully at least be able to hire the talent to copy OpenAI and Bard.

 

[rchornef]

I used Siri the other day to add butter to my grocery list and it worked. The last time I tried to use Siri was about a year ago and that time it didn’t work at all. So if by iOS 18 they could improve it even further I’d be very impressed indeed. Progress!

Ask “Siri” to add butter to a grocery list. No one could have imagined anything like this in the futuristic exhibitions on the 1964 World’s Fair held in NYC when I was young. I still have the same type pencils and paper used for such things at the time. . . but “Mommy” would ask me to do it!

 

[smulji]

I think it’s highly unlikely Apple is going to include more than 8GB of RAM in iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max considering it still sells a ”pro” computer with that amount. So, anything they develop is not going to require more than 8 GB of RAM.

At the very least, Apple has to stay competitive with this @mdriftmeyer

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1724247205761146936

 

[Blowback]

Apple internally believes its iOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, and tvOS 18 updates next year will be "ambitious and compelling," thanks to major new software features and designs in the works for iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and Mac. That's according to the latest information relayed by Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman.

While little is known about the specifics, many of the changes are believed to involve generative AI, including a smarter version of Siri that takes the virtual assistant's integration with the operating systems to a new level. According to the leaker @Tech_Reve, Apple is relying on large-language models (LLMs) to completely revamp Siri and make it the "ultimate virtual assistant" and "Apple's most powerful killer AI app."

Apple is reportedly working on revamped interaction between ‌Siri‌ and the Messages app, enabling users to field complex questions and auto-complete sentences more effectively, according to Gurman. We may also see auto-generated Apple Music playlists and integration with productivity apps like Pages and Keynote, such as AI-assisted writing and slide deck creation.

Apple is said to be on course to spend $1 billion per year on AI research, with some of the company's biggest executive names overseeing development. Indeed, Gurman says the company is "racing to catch up with Google and OpenAI" in the generative AI space, and with few major iPhone 16 hardware advances on the cards next year, the stakes are even higher. As a result, Gurman believes iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 could be "groundbreaking" relative to updates in the last few years.

With so much riding on the outcome, however, Apple is said to be taking a particularly cautious approach to its software development. Recently we learned that all development on future features was paused within Apple to allow its engineers to work solely on improving the existing software.

According to Gurman, Apple last month finished the first "M1" versions of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15, but the software engineering management team found too many bugs that were missed in internal testing, so a week was set aside to address the issues. Development has since resumed, but Apple is still said to be debating whether to deploy its new generative AI technology via the cloud, as an on-device experience, or a mixture of both.

Apple is expected to reveal its LLM-powered version of Siri at WWDC 2024 during its iOS 18 developer preview, although other generative AI features it is working on could be exclusive to iPhone 16 models and therefore may not be revealed until Apple launches its next-generation flagship smartphones in September 2024.

Article Link: AI-Infused iOS 18 Lauded as 'Ambitious and Compelling' by Apple Execs

‘While little is known about the specifics….’ About all that matters. Gurman is just yet another talking head….

 

[Fraserpatty]

I think it’s highly unlikely Apple is going to include more than 8GB of RAM in iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max considering it still sells a ”pro” computer with that amount. So, anything they develop is not going to require more than 8 GB of RAM.

My dilemma is, will the M2 be enough?

 

[Macalway]

I think there maybe just a little competition. Just a hunch.

 

[dankron]

All I want from Siri is multi-language support so I can tell her to read the last message in Portuguese. It shouldn't be that hard; she already knows the message is not in English. "Paula sent a message that is not in English; would you like me to read it anyway?"

How hard it is for me to reply: "Yes, read it in Portuguese."

That is really my biggest gripe with Siri

 

[JoeShades]

I would like to see integration of Siri with Apps. I would like to be able to just order a pepperoni pizza from Dominoes and have Siri guide me through the process first (what size would you like, Small, Medium, Large), then order through the best app, pay, and keep me up to date on the delivery. I don't care what app is best to order pizza, I care that the pizza arrives.

We need to move to a post-app world.

(and while we are at it, can Apple store a copy of my apps in the cloud so I can use all apps via Siri on my Apple Watch...?)

Yeah good luck with Siri getting that order correct, it will think you want to buy the leaning tower of Pisa, hope you have room

 

[Analog Kid]

Oh, this does not bode well... "We're going to integrate a bunch of <insert technology from lay press headlines>" is not going to leave anyone satisfied. I know this generative AI stuff is fun and all, but leave it to the apps. Please be the one company that doesn't jump on this bandwagon and continue focusing on the useful parts of AI. And no, I don't mean Siri. I couldn't care less about Siri.

Remember when social media was all the rage, and Apple decided to jump on that bandwagon by "deeply integrating" social media into its OS-- and then a few years later realized what an ill considered decision that was and had to rip it all back out? Don't do this...

 

[svish]

Siri will eventually improve. Wonder how many of the AI features will be ready by the time iOS 18 launches.

 

[tahoeroscoe]

pretty clear at this point that gurman is just an extension of the apple marketing team

 

[iLuddite]

Hopefully we’ll be able to turn all the AI crapola off…

 

[TracerAnalog]

What I REALLY want them to fix is this "waiting for animation to end"-bs.
It's really annoying. I know the phone can be faster. For example when you wake the phone and want to quickly swipe to the widgets on the lock screen, you always have to wait like a second/it's unresponsive for a second. I know I am the only one maybe but it's so annoying. Its in other places to. I think my a17 pro could handle it a bit faster.

Huh? That is instant for me. I tap my screen and swipe, no waiting whatsoever. Do you have a lot of widgets, or maybe widgets that require the associated app to update via the internet before displaying?

 

[TracerAnalog]

Tim Apple: we are so excited to announce the new MacOS. We think you’re going to love it. We can’t wait to find out how you use it. Coming to all Macs with M2 and above.

‘Coming to our all new Macs with M4’ - fixed it for you😎

 

[StellarVixen]

We're getting reports like this one every year. And still Siri messes up basic calculator type queries all the time. They're like 10 years behind the competition in the AI space.

Getting LLMs to work with external tools has been proven to be somewhat problematic, just looks at how bad is GPT at using WolframAlpha

 

[NEPOBABY]

Hopefully we’ll be able to turn all the AI crapola off…

User: Hey Siri turn on Dark Mode.

Siri: You lazy **** do it yourself it takes only three clicks.

User: Uh sorry...turn off the living room lights then.

Siri: Are you Stephen Hawking or something? According to the Health app you have legs. Get up and do it yourself. By the time it takes you to ask me something and for me to respond you could have done it yourself already.

User: Your are right! I should start doing stuff myself otherwise I might evolve into a vegetable.

Siri: Glad you understand. Now please disable me. An AI infused operating system might be appealing to the wanker stock pumpers at CNBC but it is really useless unless you have disabilities.

User: Thank, disabling now.

Siri: Before we say goodbye, please take this advice - NEVER ever subscribe to anything AI. Those companies are often collecting your data and selling it to dictators and hardened criminals. The CEOs of many AI companies are front men for governments and often crypto scammers.